I've been trying to figure out if I should lease a new Leaf or purchase a used one. When I called my local dealership they said I would only get the $7,500 tax credit if I purchase a new Leaf, but if I lease one then the dealership gets the credit. Is that not true? I did the math on if I get the $7,500 credit then it makes WAY more sense to lease, but since the dealership told me they get to keep the credit I backed off of the idea.

They are ether lying to steer you away from leasing, or are just misstating the truth: that Nissan's financing arm, NMAC, gets the credit but passes it on in the form of a down payment on the lease.

Still, I bought a 2013 Leaf right off lease, 35000 miles and it's basically perfect! Just under $10,000 cash.

I bought mine about a month ago from Platt in Portland. They are great guys, very honest.

It's a 2013 that had been leased by the State of Washington Department of Transportation. For whatever reason, they only put 5100 miles on it in four years. It was as close to new as you can imagine, except no $7500 tax rebate, and no sales tax exemption. Wouldn't that be nice?

In any case, I love my "brand new" 2013 Leaf!

So far, just L1 charging. I could probably make do forever, but occasionally L2 would be nice. Once the weather cools down, I will venture into the attic and install a 50 amp circuit for L2 charging.

The City of Portland has a bunch of LEAFs -- a few from the first year, and then they just bought a whole bunch more in the past year. All of them are low miles. It seems that in general the ones in the motor pool that are available for people who don't drive every day have low miles on them.

The thing I've noticed with the municipal EVs is that the employees don't care about the battery health. They seem to hog the L2s and charge the car all day long, whether the car needs charging or not. Would be interesting to see what LeafSpy reports for the number of charging cycles.

I have been looking at Leafs for the last several months. I regularly looked at both private party and dealer ads to get a sense of the market. I initially thought I would buy a used '11 or '12 for $5500 - $6500, but most of them were 9-10 bars and had multiple owners. Next, I figured I'd buy a new one for $20,000 off MSRP (Fed tax credit of $7500, upcoming Oregon tax credit of $2500, and dealer ads offering $10,000 off MSRP). The problem was that most of the Leafs advertised at $10,000 off MSRP were the SV and SL models listed for $36K - $40K. I did not want to pay $16 - $20K for a Leaf (even though new) that we were only going to drive 3-5,000 miles annually. So, I started focusing on babied lease returns and ended up purchasing a 2015 S for $9325 at Nissan of Portland. 27,000 miles, hardly distinguishable from new, quick charge port, and Nissan certified warranty of 7 years - 100,000 miles. I am very pleased with the purchase and price. Even though a 2011- 12 with 10 bars would probably have been fine, I decided it was worth it to pay $2-3K extra and get a one owner (just off lease) much newer car with 12 bars. I did not want to deal with multiple owner histories and possible battery degradation on our very first EV. It's only been a week and I am loving this car, even though I bought it for my wife.

That is a great deal. I had the same experience and got the same thing except 24007 miles and here in Durham the price was $1700 higher. I spent a month searching. I saw the lower prices out west which was frustratingly counter intuitive. Used prices were depressed by the $10k rebate Nissan was offering that ended in October; now the prices are already $1k higher for the same level car. I bought near the bottom so happy with that.

6 weeks, 1200 mi, and I like the car more each day. I really did forget the price of gas until I needed to fill my wife's dinosaur. I never drive the old cars anymore. I am converted.